Portuguese language on the rise

With around 230 million native speakers worldwide, the official language of eight countries, and co-official or heritage language in six territories, Portuguese is the world’s sixth-most spoken language and third-most widely spoken European one.

What’s more, use of Portuguese is growing online – it’s now the fifth most-used language on the internet and the third-most used language on social network Twitter.

This month, academics, students and members of Canberra’s diplomatic community held the second annual Day of the Portuguese Language at ANU to celebrate the language’s rich past, prosperous future and global significance.

After a welcome from Head of the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics Professor Catherine Travis, Visiting Fellow Celia Mendes from the University of Otago gave the audience an overview of the global reach of Portuguese.

Lindiane Ismênia Costa Vieira, the new Leitora (instructor) of Portuguese Language and Brazilian culture at ANU, gave a short overview of her home state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. ANU PhD candidate Armindo Maia then spoke on East Timor’s uptake of Portuguese since independence from Indonesia.

Maia, a former Ambassador and Education Minister for East Timor, noted that significant progress has been made in advancing Portuguese literacy in that country. It jumped from 17 per cent in 2004 to 40 per cent in 2010 and Maia said that this could improve with government support and the right policies.

Following the speeches, guests were invited to stay for a lunch supplied by the embassies which included several Brazilian fried cheese dishes.

The introduction of Portuguese language teaching at ANU in 2013 was supported by a Brazilian Portuguese lectureship sponsored by the Brazilian government and the Portuguese Language Endowment. The successful ongoing collaboration is unique in Australia.